What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We have recently led a complex corporate restructuring. It has involved modifying the company´s corporate structure by creating new companies and extinguishing others through mergers and spin-offs. This aimed to achieve greater financial, administrative and operational independence, making all the companies more efficient.

We have also participated in refinancing significant bank loans held by various companies of the organisation to reshape these obligations into a single loan, obtaining better financial conditions.

Lately, we have implemented a series of regulatory projects to follow up on the possible laws that may be enacted and that we must comply with in the near future; all within a regulatory compliance programme that at the same time allows us to evaluate in advance the operational and financial impacts of possible new regulations.

How do you feel the pandemic has changed the world of work for in-house counsel and the function of the general counsel?

The Covid-19 pandemic put the legal managers and their teams at the forefront of strategic business decisions. They actively participated in the design of new operational protocols regarding the new health rules dictated by the Peruvian government and in evaluating the risks in a context of constant change.

The decisions have ranged from corporate, labour, tax, and environmental issues; to maintaining the focus on the safety of our clients and collaborators and business continuity.

This health emergency transformed the traditional schemes we were used to, where face-to-face meetings prevailed. Thus, we had to carry out significant commercial and real estate transactions through videoconferences, exponentially developing our negotiation skills. It has demonstrated that the efficiency of a legal team is measurable based on compliance with indicators directly linked to the core of the business and not based on the time spent in an office.

We are facing a new reality where the use of technologies and the ability to adapt to new scenarios quickly will be decisive for in-house lawyers.

What are some of the key developments – legal, geopolitical or otherwise – that have affected your business over the past year?

Remote work and the continuous digital transformation have changed how businesses operate. Currently, many contracts are signed digitally. With the widespread use of videoconferences, we can connect with geographically distant people, carry out training, give advice and even attend hearings, significantly reducing costs. The use of programmes that allow online access to documents and files from anywhere is no less important.